American Express on the evolution of prepaid

Prepaid cards are only getting more popular among consumers and businesses and American Express is a key player in this space. Stefan Happ, currently serving as EVP and GM of the company’s Global Emerging Payments division, was part of the initial roll out and development of American Express’ prepaid card business as it evolved from pure play gift cards. With nearly two decades spent at the company, he’s well positioned to share his insights on where the market is heading.

During an interview in the Finetics™ Studio by The Bancorp at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, he shares his thoughts on building out American Express’ prepaid business and what lies ahead for this industry.

“I was part of the initial wave of us building the business more than 10 years ago when we started the gift card programme that we’re now selling through 60,000 retail locations,” says Happ. “As the years went by and the business grew, and then plateaued, we needed to innovate out of that single use gift space and then came across the use case of creating re-loadable prepaid cards that were designed to provide an alternative to more expensive bank accounts that were accessible to many people – not just those who qualified for regular bank accounts here in the US.”